What You Need to Know to Earn a Track Scholarship

Congratulations! You qualified for state last season and continue to improve your times. You may be considering whether you want to compete at the collegiate level. Let us help inform you about times, recruiting, grades and potential scholarships.

Last year alone, more than 66,000 athletes competed in one of five major divisions of college athletics. They include: NCAA D1-3, NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) and NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association). Each one of these divisions comes with different standards of eligibility and the number of scholarships it can award.

There are a number of resources available online that’ll help you learn more about Track and Field scholarships. Go here for more information on what times you’ll need to qualify for different programs.

There are over 1000 college track and field programs and fully funded Men’s NCAA D1 and D2 programs have an average of 12.6 scholarships per team. There are more than 1,000 Men’s NCAA D1 and D2 programs that allow for an average of 12.6 fully funded scholarships per team?? NAIA teams have around 12 scholarships per team. Women’s D1 programs allow for 18 scholarships per team and D2 and NAIA are granted 12 per team. Coaches also tend to split their scholarships, allowing them to grant partial scholarships to more athletes.

Here are some tips to help aide your recruitment process:

Check your eligibility requirements. The NCAA has a handy sheet that explains everything you need to know about eligibility requirements for D1 & D2 programs. Follow the D1 sliding to track what test scores correspond with your GPA. You also need to have completed 16 hours of core courses. To compete at the D2 level, you must have a minimum SAT score of 820 or ACT sum score of 68 and complete 16 core courses. Check out the NCAA blog on eligibility here for more information.

Document all of your events by recording them. Coaches want to see how you perform with your time. Recording your heats gives coaches another way to observe you without having to be there in person. Don’t be afraid to reach out to coaches either. Here are some pointers on making contact with potential coaches.

Clean up your social media accounts. Remove any posts, pictures or tags that may contain any content that you wouldn’t want a coach to see. A good rule of thumb is: if you wouldn’t want your mom to see it, then you probably shouldn’t let future coaches see it either.

Know your deadlines. Make sure you have all of your paperwork filled out in time. Take your standardized tests well in advance of the application deadline so you can retake them if necessary.

Want more information or tips? Check out some other use pointers here!

If your dream is to compete in Track and Field at the college level, informing yourself now about the requirements is crucial. Talk to your coach and let him or her know about your goals. Good coaches will help get you informed and make sure you’re on the right track to reach the next level.

No Comments

Subscribe & Follow

About Champion Teamwear

Champion Teamwear is a national provider of custom-embellished uniforms, warm-ups and practice apparel for college, school and club sports teams. With industry-leading athleticwear and trailblazing decoration processes, Champion Teamwear knows what it takes to be a Champion.